I have a late 2012 iMac with only 8 GB. The system is pretty slow now. Should I stay on Sierra (did not upgrade to High) or go ahead and upgrade to Mojave. I'm waiting to see if a new iMac appears in early 2020.
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Upgrade to Mojave
- Thread starter Blackhorse16a
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I don't want to put more RAM in since I'm so close to getting a new iMac, but it's a possibility. No ssd.
If you want to fix the slowness, I recommend an SSD. Newer versions of MacOS tend to run slow on spinning drives, and the problem only gets worse as they age.
You can install an SSD internally, but the easiest option would be externally using a USB 3 or Thunderbolt SSD. Even over USB 3 you should see a big improvement.
Mojave runs fine on my late 2012 (16gb ram, Fusion) and I've got quite a lot of stuff running (Logic X, Sibelius, iMovie, audacity, Word, Libre Office) at the same time.
OP ---
Mac Hammer has the correct answer for you in reply 6 above.
Assuming that the 2012 iMac you have has USB3 (I believe that NOT ALL of the 2012 iMacs have USB3, you have to check), buy a small-sized, inexpensive USB3 SSD. Then set it up with the OS, apps, and basic accounts, and let that become your boot drive.
Something like a Samsung t5 or Sandisk Extreme will do fine.
250gb should be "all you need" -- very affordable.
Things will run much MUCH faster -- it will "feel like a new machine".
You'll be back here telling us, "I never would have believed something could make as big a difference as that did!"
By "basic accounts", I mean leave "large libraries" of stuff like movies, music and pics on the INTERNAL drive. They don't "need speed" to run.
The idea is to keep the small SSD "lean and clean", so it will run at its best.
When you do get a new iMac, you can unplug the USB3 SSD from the old Mac, take it to the new one, and "re-purpose it" to whatever you need it for there....
Mac Hammer has the correct answer for you in reply 6 above.
Assuming that the 2012 iMac you have has USB3 (I believe that NOT ALL of the 2012 iMacs have USB3, you have to check), buy a small-sized, inexpensive USB3 SSD. Then set it up with the OS, apps, and basic accounts, and let that become your boot drive.
Something like a Samsung t5 or Sandisk Extreme will do fine.
250gb should be "all you need" -- very affordable.
Things will run much MUCH faster -- it will "feel like a new machine".
You'll be back here telling us, "I never would have believed something could make as big a difference as that did!"
By "basic accounts", I mean leave "large libraries" of stuff like movies, music and pics on the INTERNAL drive. They don't "need speed" to run.
The idea is to keep the small SSD "lean and clean", so it will run at its best.
When you do get a new iMac, you can unplug the USB3 SSD from the old Mac, take it to the new one, and "re-purpose it" to whatever you need it for there....
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I upgraded to Mojave more out of curiosity than anything. Seems about the same on my Late 2014 5K (SSD). The graphics performance however is slightly improved, so it seems Apple really worked on the graphics drivers.
I've not found anything that doesn't work yet! Upgrade!
What I did was update to the latest build before upgrading the OS to the next version, then I updated to the latest version, then upgraded to the next OS. I did this all the way from El Capitan, through Sierra, skipped High Sierra, to Mojave. Took a couple of hours, but worth the effort.
The upgrades went smoothly, and I checked everything worked at each step.
I've not found anything that doesn't work yet! Upgrade!
What I did was update to the latest build before upgrading the OS to the next version, then I updated to the latest version, then upgraded to the next OS. I did this all the way from El Capitan, through Sierra, skipped High Sierra, to Mojave. Took a couple of hours, but worth the effort.
The upgrades went smoothly, and I checked everything worked at each step.
I know. I did another one today. But if your not experienced, cutting it is hard. The ifixit tool is great though.
I just installed Mojave on my late 2012 27" iMac yesterday. I have a build-to-order machine with upgraded i7 and GTX 680MX graphics and I've also upgraded to 32 GB RAM already.
Mojave runs great....so far so good. I've also cloned the internal 1 TB Fusion drive to a Samsung T5 external SSD, and that runs great as well. I haven't used it enough to tell if the T5 is faster or not....I'm sure it is, but it is speedy wether I boot off the original drive or the T5.
Mojave runs great....so far so good. I've also cloned the internal 1 TB Fusion drive to a Samsung T5 external SSD, and that runs great as well. I haven't used it enough to tell if the T5 is faster or not....I'm sure it is, but it is speedy wether I boot off the original drive or the T5.
Can someone who had a MacPro 5,1 and Mojave 10.14.1 confirm that the wake op problems after sleep and the slow boot with a 3rd party SSD are gone?
I have a late 2012 27 inch iMac with a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 processor. I am on Mojave. I just removed my RAM that I had gotten from Crucial. One of the chips had died after 6 years - so I am back to 8GB RAM that came with the computer.
I am running the system with an external USB SSD. The computer works fine and it's not slow.
My suggestion - use an external SSD. You won't regret it.
TBH Mojave is slower than High sierra currently so I would stick to HS especially on older hardware. Plus HS is super stable now and 99% of apps will work as they should.
I have read that some people have slow startups in Mojave (3 minutes) with an external SSD. You don't have this problem obviously. Which SSD do you use?
I am still on Sierra but I was thinking of upgrading next month to High Sierra because some apps aren't supported on Sierra and on Mojave I would need to disable SIP to use some apps. Any reason to skip High Sierra for Mojave? Btw hardware is not a problem since i have the maxed 2017 iMac.